Circular knitting machine is fundamental equipment in the textile industry. It has a plurality of knitting needles located on a needle dial and cylinder to knit same or different types of yarns to become a annular fabric. The knitted fabric is wound by a fabric winding machine located beneath the circular knitting machine to form a bale of neat fabric.
The conventional fabric winding machines include two basic types: one aims to flatten the knitted annular fabric and fold in two halves without splitting the fabric and collect the fabric on a fabric collection bar through a plurality of rollers; another type includes a fabric splitting machine to split the annular fabric, then extend the fabric and wind the extended fabric on the fabric collection rod.
The fabrics knitted from different types of yarns have different fabric characteristics. For instance, the fabric using rubber yarns or including rubber yarns is difficult to return to the original form once folded and pleated. Hence a non-splitting fabric winding machine cannot be used to wind this type of fabric. If a circular knitting machine has originally included such a non-splitting fabric winding machine, the non-splitting fabric winding machine has to be changed to a fabric winding machine equipped with fabric splitting function to avoid forming pleats. However, the fabric winding machine is a large size equipment and quite expensive. Its weight and size make changing difficult on the circular knitting machine. Moreover, to do such a change requires not only disassembly and re-assembly of large equipment, a large storage space also is needed to store the removed fabric winding machine. This seriously affects the cost of producers.
Some techniques have been proposed to remedy the aforesaid problem. For instance, R.O.C. patent No. M245217 entitled “Dual structure for fabric splitting and winding of fabric winding machines” aims to be used for fabric splitting and winding on a knitting machine. It has a fabric splitting machine located on a fabric winding machine that has a splitting knife and a motor. The fabric winding machine is installed on a lower side of the knitting machine and includes guiding wheels, rollers, fabric dispensing wheels, a first and second fabric winding wheels. The fabric splitting machine splits the fabric of the knitting machine. The guiding wheels of the fabric winding machine direct the fabric, the fabric dispensing wheels spread the split fabric, the rollers move the fabric forwards, and finally the first fabric winding wheels wind the fabric. Hence the fabric can be split, spread and wound in a neat manner. When there is no need to split the fabric, the fabric produced from the knitting machine is directly directed by the guiding wheels without passing through the fabric dispensing wheels (by moving the fabric dispensing wheels away); the fabric is wound by the second fabric winding wheels. Thus one machine can achieve two purposes. The main feature of the previous patent is to provide two different winding wheels to wind respectively the split or non-split fabric. The fabric flattening structure is the same. The width of the split fabric is two times of the non-split fabric. Hence it needs an extended space to smooth spreading of the fabric and collect the fabric on the fabric winding wheels.
Moreover, the previous patent has to consider another factor that affects smooth fabric winding in the non-split condition. Namely, in the non-splitting condition the fabric is directly wound through the guiding wheels without any fabric treating. In the event that there is any pleat or wrinkle occurred to the fabric after the knitting operation is finished, the pleat or wrinkle is directed wound into the fabric. This affects the fabric quality.
In addition, the fabric dispensing wheels to spread the split fabric in the previous patent take a lot of space. That patent switches to the non-splitting condition by moving the fabric dispensing wheels backwards. As a result, the space occupied by the fabric winding machine increases, and the number of machines installable on the same size of plant is smaller. Total production output also decreases. This is also a concern to be considered during procurement of the fabric winding machine.